[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 17, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1427-E1428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     COMMEMORATING CONSTITUTION DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 17, 2014

  Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, today, we 
celebrate Constitution Day--a holiday that falls 227 years after our 
founding fathers George Washington, James Madison, and their colleagues 
signed the original Constitution and sent it to the states for 
ratification. We should all use this important holiday as an 
opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the Founding generation--
who wrote the most durable and successful charter of government in 
world history--but we should also remember that the Framers only wrote 
the opening chapter in a much longer constitutional story. And this is 
precisely what the Framers themselves intended--leaving it up to future 
generations to use the Article V amendment process to improve upon 
their handiwork and ``form a more perfect Union.''
   Perhaps the most important set of constitutional changes occurred 
after the Civil War, when President Lincoln and his generation ratified 
a series of transformational Amendments that many scholars have rightly 
described as our nation's ``Second Founding.'' As we approach the 150th 
anniversaries of these key Second Founding Amendments--the Thirteenth, 
Fourteenth, and Fifteenth--it's worth pausing for a moment on this 
Constitution Day to consider their centrality to America's 
constitutional story.
   The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery and forced labor--redeeming 
us from the Founding generation's original sin. Following his 
reelection in November 1864, President Lincoln worked furiously to 
convince members of Congress to support the Thirteenth Amendment, 
eventually securing congressional approval on January 31, 1865. The 
following day, Lincoln took the unusual step of signing the Thirteenth 
Amendment before sending it to the states for ratification, calling it 
a ``King's cure'' for the evil of slavery.
   The Fourteenth Amendment is arguably the most important 
constitutional provision ratified after the Bill of Rights, enshrining 
a host of new constitutional guarantees in our nation's charter. It 
granted U.S. citizenship to everyone born on American soil--a guarantee 
worthy of special reflection on a day also set aside as Citizenship 
Day. It protected fundamental rights like free speech from state abuses 
and ensured due process of law for everyone. Finally, it wrote 
Jefferson's famous Declaration into the Constitution and perfected it 
by changing ``all men'' to ``any person.'' This universal language 
guarantees equality for everyone--whether black or white, woman or man, 
gay or heterosexual.
   Finally, the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed the right to vote free 
of racial discrimination--beginning the most sustained project of 
constitutional improvement in American history. This project produced a 
total of six Voting Rights Amendments that established the right to 
vote as the most fundamental of all rights in our constitutional 
system.
   Beginning this Constitution Day, we should use the 150th anniversary 
of the Second Founding to begin a national conversation about its 
enduring meaning and our nation's unfinished project of living up to 
the constitutional principles enshrined in its transformational 
Amendments. While our country has made tremendous progress since that 
day 227 years ago, our nation's story is not over and together we must 
continue building on our strong foundation to improve upon our more 
perfect union.

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